GoCardless vs Stripe: Choosing Your Payment Processor

Note that the information about GoCardless and Stripe found in this article was taken from their respective websites on 7 March 2024. This information is subject to change.

In 2024, businesses, both big and small, are increasingly opting for digital payment processing. Among the leading services in this area are Stripe and GoCardless, each providing a variety of features.

Stripe, established in 2010, has made a name for itself as a reliable payment processor in the market. GoCardless, introduced in 2011, has become a go-to solution for managing recurring Direct Debit payments.

Here, we compare GoCardless and Stripe, including products, integrations, and pricing, to help you choose the provider that is best suited to your needs.

Stripe vs GoCardless: Key Differences

On the surface, both providers collect and process payments. Yet there are key differences between GoCardless and Stripe, especially in their product range.

GoCardless focuses primarily on recurring and one-off global Direct Debit payments. This means merchants can collect payments directly from their customer’s bank accounts. It doesn’t offer hardware for in-person payments or online payment methods other than Direct Debits.

Meanwhile, Stripe offers a wide range of payment processing options, including both in-person and online transactions, and over 100 popular payment methods. Its hardware product range includes a terminal and a variety of readers that can pair with a Point-of-Sale (PoS) device.

GoCardless versus Stripe: Security

Stripe is a PCI DSS-certified payments provider, which means the company adheres to a stringent industry benchmark for processing payments. Stripe’s systems are regularly audited, and its terminal is also certified by EVMCo standards and PA-DSS.

Stripe encrypts sensitive data both in transit and at rest. Its security features also include tokenisation. The company offers a comprehensive Radar system that detects and blocks fraud using machine learning that trains on data across millions of global companies.

GoCardless is not PCI-certified, but the provider is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a payment institution. All money collected is held in a secure client money account with reputable banks such as Barclays, BNP and others.

Apart from this, the payment company adheres to GDPR, uses multiple firewalls to separate financial data servers, uses encryption and has an ISO 27001 certification for information security.

GoCardless also offers an anti-fraud system, GoCardless Protect+. It’s an end-to-end solution built specifically for bank payments. The system integrates with GoCardless payments to automatically identify, prevent and monitor potential fraudulent payers.

GoCardless vs Stripe: Payment Methods

This is another area where the two payment gateways differ. Stripe boasts access to 100+ payment methods to convert more customers. The provider supports all major credit cards and popular digital wallets around the world, such as Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and others.

GoCardless, on the other hand, is an online DirectDebit provider and does not offer the option to pay via credit or debit cards or alternative payment methods. GoCardless services are restricted to direct debit payments only.

GoCardless vs Stripe: Integrations

In terms of third-party integration, Stripe’s App Marketplace connects with 135 business applications in categories such as accounting, compliance, data and analytics, and more. The featured tools include PrestaShop, Salesforce B2C Commerce, Adobe Commerce, Chargeblast, Xero, and others.

The company also offers their partnership ecosystem, including 656 integration opportunities that help businesses leverage Stripe more effectively.

Meanwhile, GoCardless offers a Partner Directory on their website, where users can explore various integrations and partnerships. This directory includes connections to over 350+ partner apps in categories such as accounting, CRM, analytics, and others.

GoCardless vs Stripe: Countries & Currencies

Stripe is globally minded as it supports cross-border multi-currency payments to 195+ countries. The provider offers payments in 135+ global currencies, allowing merchants to charge customers in their native currency while getting paid in their own currency.

Meanwhile, GoCardless supports international payments from 38 countries. GoCardless allows collecting money from 31 of 36 Single European Payments Area (SEPA) countries, provided merchants recieve the funds in EUR from a EUR-denominated bank account.

There are eight countries/regions supported by default when signing up for an account including the Eurozone, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK. Therefore, by default, the provider supports eight currencies: EUR, USD, AUD, NZD, CAD, SEK, DKK, and GBP.

GoCardless vs Stripe: Fees

When it comes to the pricing structure, Stripe comes with a variety of fees. For its online payment processing, Stripe charges 1.5% + 20p per transaction for standard UK credit cards and 2.5% + 20p for EU cards. For international cards, it’s 3.25% + 20p. For Link, Stripe’s one-click payment, it’s 1.2% + 20p.

Stripe’s processing fees in-person are 1.4% + 10p per successful charge for EEA cards and 2.9% + 10p for non-EEA cards. Stripe’s hardware terminal prices range from £49 to £179.

There are more fees for alternative currencies, dispute chargeback management, check-out domain, billing, invoicing, taxing, payment links, revenue recognition, anti-fraud measures, identity verification, card issuing and other services. It’s crucial to examine Stripe’s complete fee structure before choosing the provider.

GoCardless uses a different pricing model. The provider offers three plans: standard, advanced and pro.

GoCardless Standard includes a collection of one-off and recurring payments from 30+ countries with the real exchange rate powered by Wise. Users can integrate with 350+ partners' software, put their own branding on the customer sign-up form and benefit from full regulation and encryption.

GoCardless Advanced includes everything in the standard plan, plus the Success+ tool to reduce failed payments, customer bank account details verification and tailored customer experience such as payment pages and email notifications (at additional fees).

GoCardless Pro includes everything in standard and advanced, plus the Protect+ anti-fraud system, which also manages and monitors chargebacks.

Stripe and GoCardless Alternative

Noda is an alternative to Stripe and GoCardless. Its all-in-one platform offers secure and efficient payment solutions for businesses of all types and sizes.

Noda’s payments are driven by the power of open banking. This new framework revolutionised finance by enabling traditional banks to share data with third-party providers, enhancing customers’ experience and simplifying transaction flow.

Noda supports a variety of global currencies, working with over 2000 banks across 28 countries.

Our platform uses cutting-edge AI and machine-learning technology to streamline financial analytics. We offer intuitive UX, seamless payment processing, robust security and scalable plans.